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Semi Olympus
}} The Semi Olympus (セミ・オリンパス) is a 4.5×6cm folder. It was the first camera made by Takachiho (predecessor of Olympus), released in 1936 or 1937 and succeeded by the Semi Olympus II. Today, the camera is often called "Semi Olympus I", but it seems that this designation was not used at the time it was sold. Description The Semi Olympus is a 4.5×6cm folding camera for 16 exposures on 120 film, with a vertical folding bed and a folding optical finder. The body is a copy of the German Baldax (the large model for #0 shutter size). It was made by the Japanese company Proud, and it is the same as the body of the prewar Semi Proud. Sakurai Eiichi, pp.64–5 of no.20; Hagiya, p.14 of the same magazine; Hibi, p.62 of no.8; and other sources. Francesch, pp.23 and 56–7, says that the body was made by the German company Plaubel, but this is a mistake, certainly originating from a confusion between the company names Proud (written プラウド in katakana script) and Plaubel (written プラウベル). The advance knob is at the bottom right, as seen by the photographer holding the camera horizontally. The film advance is controlled by red windows. The back is hinged to the left and the back latch is covered by a leather handle. The release for the folding bed is to the right of the viewfinder and there is no body release. The name OLYMPUS is embossed in the front leather. The lens is a four-element Zuiko 75mm f/4.5, focused by turning the front element. It was the first serial produced camera lens from the future Olympus company. The lens rim is engraved Takatiho Tôkyô Zuikô 1:4.5 f=75mm. No.1xxx, "Takatiho" and "Takachiho" are alternative romanizations of the same name. The pronunciation is closer to the "chi" of "chilly" than to the "ti" of "tinfoil". except on one composite example described below. Origin Takachiho started to develop camera lenses in 1934. Date: Sakurai, p.371 of Shashin Kōgyō no.78; Maitani, "Kamera-zukuri he no bōken"; Sakai, p.7 of no.20; Francesch, p.19. The design team was led by Dr. Miyata (宮田尚一) and comprised Ing. Yanagawa (future chief researcher for lens design in the 1950s); it was placed under the supervision of Mr Suzuki, chief of the optical department. Sakurai Eiichi mentions Dr. Miyata and Ing. Yanagawa on p.371 of Shashin Kōgyō no.78, and Dr. Miyata and Mr Suzuki on p.64 of no.20. The first results, tried in mid 1936, included a 105/4.5 and a 75/4.5, both with four elements in three groups. 105/4.5 and 75/4.5: Hagiya, p.13 of no.20. Two lens elements out of four were made of Japanese lens glass, supplied by the Osaka Industrial Research Institute (大阪工業試験所, Ōsaka Kōgyō Shikensho). Hagiya, p.13 of no.20, about the 75/4.5. The company tried to sell the lenses alone, but did not succeed. Sakurai Eiichi, p.64 of no.20. He does not specify if the company approached other camera makers or wholesale companies to sell the lenses to the general public, but the former is more likely. Miyazaki Shizuma (宮崎静馬), founder of Proud-sha, talked to Mr Kura (内蔵), in charge of commercial planning at Takachiho, and suggested making a camera around the Zuiko lens and selling it under the "Olympus" brand, already registered by Takachiho for microscopes. Sakurai Eiichi, p.64 of no.20. He offered to supply the camera bodies, the same as those of the Semi Proud, and insisted on adopting the prestigious Compur shutter, to make the camera easier to sell. Sakurai Eiichi, pp.64–5 of no.20. According to Sakurai Eiichi, only one lot was made before imported shutters became unavailable; Sakurai Eiichi, p.65 of no.20. he does not state the reason for this, although it might have been a consequence of the outbreak of war with China in Summer 1937. Documents The Semi Olympus was featured in a column of the March 1937 issue of Camera Club; this is the oldest mention reported in Japanese photographic magazines. , p.335. The camera was advertised in the June 1937 issue of and in the July 1937 issue of . Hibi, p.63 of no.8. The advertisement in was placed by the distributor Yamashita Yūjirō Shōten. Advertisement on p. A65 of the magazine; reproduced in , p.62, in Hibi, p.62 of no.8 and in Hagiya, p.10 of no.20. (From the July issue, Takachiho used its one page in to advertise the Olympus Standard.) It mentions two versions, one with a Rulex A shutter (1–200, T, B) made by Neumann & Heilemann, priced at , the other with an Auto-Compur shutter (1–250, T, B), priced at , with a supplement of ¥5 for the case. (Some sources say that the camera was priced at ¥105, but no original document has yet been found to confirm this.) Price of ¥105: Sakurai Eiichi, p.65 of no.20; Hagiya, p.14 of the same magazine. Even the testimony of Sakurai is not completely certain: such a minor detail might have been remembered wrongly. The same document states that the camera's dimensions are 13×7.5×4cm, and that it weighs 540g. A brochure was also printed for the Semi Olympus. Awano, p.2 of no.209. In the same article, Awano says that the Semi Olympus was offered with either a Compur or a Rulex A shutter, but he does not specify if this information comes from the brochure or from the June 1937 advertisement in . One of the pictures reportedly shows the serial number 1028 on the Zuiko lens. Awano, p.2 of no.209. It is very likely that the serial number sequence began at 1001, a common practice among Japanese manufacturers of the time. Surviving examples With Compur shutter The version with Compur shutter is usually said to be the earliest. Two surviving examples are known, with lens no.1048 and 1141 or 1142. Lens no.1048: example pictured in Francesch, p.56, in , p.747 and in , item 1213. Lens no.1141 or 1142: example owned by John Foster and pictured in this page of his own website and here at Chromesix. It is very plausible that the serial number sequence began at 1001: this was a very common practice at the time among Japanese optical companies. It would be extremely difficult to prove this assertion though, unless the lens registries are still held by the Olympus company. The Compur shutter plate has the FD logo on the right (for Friedrich Deckel), the usual COMPUR marking at the bottom and a small plate marked OLYMPUS screwed at the top, at the place usually provided in the Compur rim-set shutters to display the camera maker's name. The aperture scale goes from 4.5 to 22 and is screwed to the bottom. The shutter itself gives T, B, 1–250 speeds, and has a self-timer and a screw to attach a soft release. There is an arm in front of the shutter plate, linked to the Compur shutter. It is tripped by the photographer's right hand and acts as a release. The Compur was designed for a body release, and without this linkage the position of the release lever would have been impractical because of the folding struts. The exact same linkage is found on some examples of the Semi Proud with Compur shutter. Example of the Semi Proud pictured in Hibi, p.62 of no.8, and example pictured in an advertisement dated February 1938 reproduced in , p.89. This is perhaps an indication that the Compur shutters were supplied by Proud-sha. With Rulex shutter The version with Rulex shutter is generally unknown to Western collectors. However two surviving examples have recently surfaced (both pictured in this page), with lens no.1098 and 1137. The presence of two different examples and one original advertisement is enough to ensure that this version was officially produced. However the authenticity of this version is challenged by Foster in this page at Biofos. In his own words: "There is a suggestion based on a mid-1937 advert that Olympus also fitted the Proud body with a RULEX shutter. ... I have seen a Rulex version but am not persuaded of its authenticity as its serial number places it in the earliest Compur period, too early to fit any subsequent 1937 theory. Suggestion that Olympus' own historical account of its founding date for camera manufacture may be inaccurate, is absurd and predicated only in support of an illogical theory." The Rulex gives 1–200, B, T speeds and has the early type of shutter plate, as described in the Rulex page. The pictures of the example with lens no.1098 do not show the 1s and 1/2 settings, certainly because they are hidden by the release lever. However the possibility that the shutter is actually a Rulex B (5–200, B, T) cannot be entirely discarded. It has an OLYMPUS nameplate screwed to the top of the shutter plate, the same as on the Compur shutter. The aperture scale looks the same as on the Compur. With non original Koho shutter It is usually said that there is a later version with Koho shutter. The Koho shutter was made by Takachiho itself and was mounted on the Semi Olympus II and later on the Olympus Six. It was first announced for the Semi Olympus II under the name "Laurel". The existence of a Semi Olympus with Koho shutter would imply a sales overlap with the Semi Olympus II. No advertisement for this version is known, and none of the advertisements for the Semi Olympus II mentions the original model. Two surviving examples of the Semi Olympus actually exist with a Koho shutter. One has lens no.1078 and a shutter giving 1–200, B, T speeds. Example pictured in Hibi, pp.62 and 63 of no.8; in Orinpasu-ten (cover, pp.3 and 4); and in Omoide no supuringu-kamera-ten, p.23. The lens number is close to the other numbers mentioned above. However the shutter version is strange: the Koho was first produced for the Semi Olympus II with 1/150 top speed, and the switch to 1/200 top speed did not occur before late 1939 at the earliest. The 1/150 top speed is still mentioned in the advertisement for the Semi Olympus II published in ''Asahi Camera October 1939, reproduced in this page of the Heiki Seikatsu website. The other example has lens no.6358 and is held at the Olympus gallery. Example pictured in Francesch, p.57; in , p.747; in , item 1214; in this page of the Olympus corporate site; and in many other sources. It has a Koho shutter giving 1–150, B, T speeds. This time the lens number is problematic: the other five cameras are in the 10xx and 11xx range, the lowest lens number observed so far on a Semi Olympus II is no.144x in an advertisement dated May 1938 (see below) and no.2001 on an actual example, and the lens no.7157 has been observed on an Olympus Six, dated about 1940. Semi Olympus II with lens no.144x: advertisement in Asahi Camera May 1938, p.A52, reproduced in Hagiya, p.62 of no.8. — Semi Olympus II with lens no.2001: example held at the Olympus gallery, pictured in Francesch (cover page) and in , p.747. — Olympus Six with lens no.7157: example observed in an online auction. The lens no.6358 would not have been produced before about 1939. It is thus likely that the two surviving cameras with Koho shutter are composite. They were probably created by the company itself, outside the regular production. They could have been made to dispose of a stock of unsold Semi Olympus bodies. The fact that one of them remains the property of the company might also suggest that they were made for an internal purpose, perhaps to serve as a testbed for the Koho shutters. Release date Most sources say that the camera was first sold in 1936; some specify September. September 1936: Sakai, p.7 of no.20. This source seems extremely accurate on all points. This date has not yet been confirmed by any original document. The fact that it is stated in the official history of Olympus does not constitute a proof in itself. Examples abound of mistakes spread around the 1950s by major Japanese companies about their prewar past, and repeated ever since. One of them is the company Minolta, which made major mistakes in the release dates of its prewar models (see e.g. the article on the Semi Minolta (I) and II) and in the name of its earliest camera (see the Nifcarette article). Another is the historical article written by the sales department of Olympus and published in the August 1960 issue of Shashin Kōgyō (no.100), which contains mistakes: it says that the film plane corrector and D.Zuiko lens of the Olympus Chrome Six were released in 1951 (instead of 1952 and 1954 respectively), and that the Olympus Chrome Six V has an uncoupled rangefinder. The archives of the company were destroyed in the 1945 air raids over Tokyo, Francesch, p.27. and the earliest mention found of the 1936 release year is an article dated 1958 by Sakurai Eiichi, who entered the company in 1935 and later became its chief camera designer. Sakurai, p.372 of Shashin Kōgyō no.78. This article already contains the "official" story of the Compur version followed by the Koho version. In an interview dated 1992, "Zadankai: Orinpasu no michi", pp.64–71 of no.20. Sakurai describes a sequence of events which took place between the final lens tests in June or July 1936 June 1936: Francesch, p.20. July 1936: Sakai, p.7 of no.20. and the release of the camera — attempts to sell the Zuiko lenses alone, contacts with Proud, procurement of shutters and contacts with a distributor — but he does not state if these took a matter of days or months. Matsuzaki Sōichirō (松崎惣一郎), Sakurai's brother-in-law, remembers that he was shown an example of the Semi Olympus around 1936. Matsuzaki, p.28 of no.76. He says that he was shown the camera at about the same time Sakurai married his sister. The September 1936 date might correspond to the completion of the first prototypes rather than the release to the public. In any case, the first sales took place on a very small scale, with a total of less than 500 Olympus cameras completed as of May 1938. This is inferred from the lens no.144x visible in an advertisement for the Semi Olympus II published in Asahi Camera May 1938, p.A52, and reproduced in Hibi, p.62 of no.8. See Semi Olympus II for a more detailed discussion. They may have remained unmentioned by photographic magazines for a few months: the first mention of the camera is in a relatively minor magazine, and it never appeared in the columns of mainstream magazines such as Asahi Camera or Ars Camera. , p.335. More pictures Notes Bibliography * June 1937. Advertisement by Yamashita Yūjirō Shōten for the Semi Olympus (I), p.A65. * Item 37. * Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Semi Orinpasu II" (セミオリンパスⅡ, Semi Olympus II). In no.209 (November 1994). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. * Pp.20–4 and 55–7. * Hagiya Takeshi (萩谷剛). "Kōkoku kara miru Orinpasu kamera no nagare" (広告から見るオリンパスカメラの流れ, "Olympus camera history seen through the advertisements"). Pp.10–1. * Hagiya Takeshi (萩谷剛). "Orinpasu kamera no subete 1: supuringu kamera " (オリンパスカメラのすべて1・スプリングカメラ戦前編, "All of Olympus cameras 1: folding cameras prewar"). Pp.13–5. * Hibi Takashi (日比孝). "Nihon no supuringu kamera: Orinpasu" (日本のスプリングカメラ・オリンパス, "Japanese folding cameras: Olympus"). Pp.62–5. * P.53 (brief mention only). * Maitani Yoshihisa (米谷美久). "Kamera-zukuri he no bōken" (カメラ創りへの冒険, "Venturing into camera production"). Volume 1 of [http://www.olympus-zuiko.com/dev_spirits/index.html Haikei — Sekkeisha yori] (拝啓・設計者より, "Dear Sir, from the designer"). Published in the Zuiko Club website, belonging to the Olympus Imaging Corp. * Matsuzaki Sōichirō (松崎惣一郎). "'Orinpasu kurōmu shikkusu' to sono koto domo" (「オリンパスクロームシックス」とその周辺のことども, "About the 'Olympus Chrome Six'"). Pp.28–31. (The author is Sakurai Eiichi's brother-in-law.) * P.747. * Olympus Kōgaku Kōgyō K.K. sales department (オリンパス光学工業 営業部). "Semi Orinpasu kara Orinpasu Ōto Ai" (セミオリンパスからオリンパスオートアイ, From the Semi Olympus to the Olympus Auto Eye). Shashin Kōgyō no.100 (August 1960). P.24. (Contains major inaccuracies.) * Omoide no supuringu-kamera-ten (思い出のスプリングカメラ展, Exhibition of beloved self-erecting cameras). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 1992. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number.) P.23. * Orinpasu-ten — oputo-dejitaru-tekunolojī no kiseki (オリンパス展・オプトデジタルテクノロジーの軌跡, Olympus exhibition, the tracks of opto-digital technology). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2005. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number.) * Sakai Shūichi (酒井修一). "Orinpasu no rekishi" (オリンパスの歴史, "History of Olympus"). Pp.6–9. * Sakurai Eiichi (桜井栄一). "Orinpasu kamera no rekishi" (オリンパスカメラの歴史, "Brief History of Olympus cameras"). Shashin Kōgyō no.78 (October 1958). Pp.371–5. * Sakurai Eiichi (桜井栄一). "Orinpasu kamera no rekishi" (オリンパスカメラの歴史, "Brief History of Olympus cameras"). Shashin Kōgyō no.78 (October 1958). Pp.371–5. * Items 1213–4. * "Zadankai: Orinpasu no michi" (座談会・オリンパスの道, "Conversation: the way of Olympus"). Interview of Sakurai Eiichi (桜井栄一), Maitani Yoshihisa (米谷美久) and Kawazoe Mitsuo (河添光男), by Saeki Kakugorō (佐伯恪五郎). Pp.64–71. Links In English: * Medium-format cameras, chronology and wallpapers in the Olympus official website * Olympus folders' page at John Foster's site * Chrome Six Website by François Rossi * Olympus camera history at the Unofficial Olympus OM Sales Information File In German: * Semi Olympus at Olypedia In Japanese: * Semi Olympus and Semi Olympus II in the history pages of the Olympus Photo Club website. (The information there seems to be based on the article by Hibi in no.8.) * Semi Olympus (Compur) and Semi Olympus (Koho) in the Map Camera Museum (both are illustrated by a picture of the same camera with lens no.6358, taken from the Olympus website) Category: Japanese 4.5x6 viewfinder folding Category: Olympus Category: S Olympus, Semi